Walls
by luvs-to-write2
Summary: Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake were hiking to Mount Weather. Together. It was a ridiculous concept until you realized their partnership was based on mutual distrust. Can they ever break down the walls between them and learn to trust one another? How much can 24 hours change a relationship? How much can a shared secret? Post 1x7, and goes from there.
1. Chapter 1

Bellamy patrolled the inner perimeter of the wall. People were working together, building and reinforcing the wall. A team of five had just returned from gathering firewood A young girl, about Charlotte's age, paused in her work of stripping the skin from a rabbit, looking to him for validation. He almost smiled at her but caught himself just in time. He wasn't her friend. That wasn't his role to play as leader. Instead, he nodded in approval and continued his route.

When they first landed, his rallying cry had been for everyone to do whatever the Hell they wanted. At the time, it won him a lot of fans. In 20/20 hindsight, it was a lousy idea. He was slowly figuring out that people needed a purpose. Society functioned better with a mutual goal. And nothing brings a group closer together than a common enemy: the Grounders. As dangerous as they were, the Grounders cemented Bellamy's role as leader. No one was going to break off from camp to form their own group. And the threat of banishment was a powerful stick to wave. Physical fights between the 100 had stopped. Even most arguments were solved quickly. Because whatever problem someone had with another juvenile, it was nothing compared to the danger they faced outside the walls. Kind of put minor disagreements in perspective.

His eyes flicked to a certain blonde, hunched over the makeshift supply depot they'd built. Clarke Griffin was his Achilles' heel. She constantly questioned his leadership, argued with his decisions, made people doubt him. Hell, his own sister took her side over his most of the time. And she was smart. That combination made Clarke the most dangerous person in camp.

Bellamy stopped. Something about the way Clarke was moving, looking over her shoulder, working quickly. She stuffed a blanket in a backpack. Why the Hell did Clarke need a blanket unless she was planning to be out of camp overnight? Bellamy stormed over to the girl. "Where the Hell do you think you're going?"

Clarke startled, and for a moment looked almost guilty, before setting her jaw and going back to packing food rations. "Finn's wound is infected. He needs antibiotics. I've put Monty on the task of cultivating penicillin from mold spores but it'll take six days. That's too long." Clarke shook her head. "Stupid. I should have anticipated this and got Monty on it the day we arrived. But I talked to my Mom. She said there are medical supplies at Mount Weather and a few of the medicines, including one antibiotic, will still be viable after all these years." She hesitated as she picked up a shank. The sharp blade looked out of place in her small hand, but Bellamy knew Clarke could use it without hesitation. She stuffed the knife in her belt.

"The earth science division on the Ark was also able to provide me with a more accurate map of the area. I've picked a route that should be faster than the last time we tried and more importantly, will hopefully keep me undetected by Grounders.

Bellamy worked hard to keep his anger in check. "And…you were just going to take off without telling anyone?"

"I told Monty, obviously. And Jasper. I also told Raven. We aren't telling Finn though. He'd just worry." Clarke quickly stuffed a few more rations in her pack.

Yeah, that must have been an awkward conversation. Hey Raven, I'm putting my life at risk for your boyfriend. Don't tell him though. He worries about me. But that wasn't who he was talking about and she damn well knew it. He grabbed her wrist to stop her busy work. "And when were you going to tell me?"

Clarke glanced up and her blue eyes seemed to look right into his soul and uncover every secret he'd worked so hard to keep hidden behind a wall so high that no one, not even Octavia had ever seen inside. He had to make an effort not to pull away. Definitely the most dangerous person in camp. To him anyway. "Well?" he asked again, through clenched teeth, trying to make it sound less personal then his last sentence.

Clarke shrugged. "It was a need to know basis. You didn't need to know."

_5…4…3…2…1_ Bellamy counted down to keep his head from exploding. That she thought…but he was the…she was going to get herself…ARGH! He dropped her wrist and ran both hands through his hair. "You're not going. It's too dangerous. Didn't what happened to Octavia teach you anything?"

Clarke narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, I'm going. But fine, I'll bring Jasper with me."

Bellamy snorted. "Jasper's an idiot. You'd be safer on your own. But no. Give me the map. I'll go, and I'll bring a couple of my guys with me. Ones who can actually fight."

Clarke just rolled her eyes and clutched her backpack to her chest. Obviously the map was in there. If he needed to, he would take it from her.

"As if I'm letting you and your bully buddies get the supplies so you can hoard them and dole them out as the lord feels fit in exchange for favours. I don't think so."

Wow, that one was like a punch to the gut. Did Clarke really think so little of him? Then he added up his crimes. He shot the Chancellor. He convinced people to take off their bracelets so the Ark would think they were dead. He broke their only radio, killing 300 people. Yeah, Clarke had every reason to believe he'd put his own needs above everyone else's. And he wasn't sure why but he desperately wanted to change her opinion of him. "Give me a better suggestion than Jasper," he growled.

"Raven. She's tough as nails and she knows how to fight."

Bellamy didn't trust Raven to keep Clarke safe. If the mechanic had a choice of getting antibiotics back to camp or getting Clarke back to camp she'd pick medicine for Finn in a heartbeat. "And how's Finn going to take it if both his girlfriends die?" he sneered.

Clarke visibly recoiled from his words. It was cruel and it obviously wasn't the reason he didn't want Raven going with Clarke, but he wasn't feeling real generous at the moment.

Clarke walked away stiffly.

_Crap._ He hurried to get ahead of her. "OK, that was a shitty thing to say. I just don't trust her." Clarke stared through him again as he silently pleaded with her to stay safe.

Something in his expression must have worked because she pinched the bridge of her nose and nodded. "There's one person we both trust, but you're not going to like it."

Who was she thinking of? Finn? As much as he hated to admit it, he did trust Spacewalker to keep Clarke safe. But Finn was the reason for this medical emergency trip in the first place so it wasn't..."NO!" This time he did explode. "You're crazy if you think I'm letting Octavia go." He paced in front of Clarke, trying to walk off the energy that had him wanting to shake some sense into her. "It's bad enough that you're going." _Wait. That didn't come out right._


	2. Chapter 2

**This is a ridiculously short one but I'm changing POV with each chapter and this is as much as I had for Clarke this time around. Chapter 4 in her POV will be much longer. And, I'm putting two chapters up at once to make up for it. :-)**

"_You're crazy if you think I'm letting Octavia go." Bellamy paced in front of her. "It's bad enough that you're going."_

Clarke realized her mouth was hanging open. She snapped it shut again. That could not possibly mean what it sounded like; that Bellamy actually cared whether she lived or died. Obviously he meant it in a sexist men are stronger than women thing and he didn't think any women should go on a mission like this.

"I'll go with you," he said gruffly.

Why did the thought of that make her feel both safe and unsafe at the same time? This was a bad idea. "Who'll be leader when you're gone?"

Bellamy smirked. "Glad to see you've finally admitted I'm the leader."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "I only admit that people are willing follow you. Whether you're making good decisions that deserve to be followed is another story." That fact had frustrated her from the moment they'd arrived. She knew what needed to be done but people preferred stupid plans wrapped in Bellamy's charisma. What was it that drew people to him?

"Sorry the royal hierarchy doesn't work for you down here, Princess. I'll leave Dax in charge. No one will mess with him."

"Ew. No. Dax is maniacal. I wouldn't trust him with the life of a goldfish, let alone the 100."

His smirk turned into a grin. A rare event that made Clarke's heart beat a little faster. Holy crap, she'd figured out part of Bellamy's charisma.

"So you're saying I'm not maniacal. That's a ringing endorsement, coming from you."

"That's not what I said." Clarke grew more flustered as Bellamy's grin widened. When had she lost control of this conversation? "You're just less maniacal than Dax."

Bellamy shrugged. "I'll take what I can get. Fine, I'll leave Miller and Raven in charge, with the understanding that Raven is speaking for Finn. The 100 will follow him; they won't follow her yet."

The obstacles to their little adventure were falling away. There was nothing left for Clarke to do but nod her agreement.


	3. Chapter 3

The trip to Mount Weather was going, surprisingly, without incident. Since Clarke had the map she lead most of the way. Bellamy was happy to let her do it. It gave him more time to watch her as she moved through the forest. She was confident in her map reading and sure footed over mossy logs and sharp rocks. She tackled hiking like she tackled everything else since they'd landed - with conviction. That conviction made her a formidable opponent.

One thing he could appreciate about Clarke was that she didn't feel the need of filling every moment of quiet with meaningless conversation. Between the guys in his hunting party and the girls in his bed, no one ever shut up around him. It was constant jostling for position, talking him up, asking favors. They laughed at his jokes too loudly, agreed with his ideas too quickly, and as much as his male ego hated to admit it, screamed out his name in bed too consistently.

He felt a flash of sympathy for Chancellor Jaha. Was this what it was like for him? Never knowing what to believe because people were falling over themselves to say yes to whatever he said. But Clarke's Dad wasn't a yes-man…and he got floated for it. Flash of sympathy? Gone.

Clarke obviously took after her Dad; not afraid to speak her mind, no matter the cost. And yeah, there'd been more than a few times on Earth when it would have been convenient if she had just floated. But as much as he hated to admit it, he needed her honesty. Sometimes it felt like she was the only one in camp willing to give that to him. Bellamy would never tell her that, of course. It would give her too much power over him. And even though a few of her ideas were good ones, the princess knew nothing about working class juveniles and how to lead them. No, he needed his power intact. Even if it left him with plenty of allies but no one he could truly call a friend.

Still, it would be nice to be able to be real around someone. With the tension between he and Octavia, he had even lost that. Sometimes he found himself saying no to a good idea of Clarke's just so she'd argue with him. She'd get right up in his face, yelling at him, the passion and conviction obvious in her eyes and in her voice. It kept him on his toes. But even that was nothing compared to the few times he'd made her smile. Bellamy didn't realize how much a sincere smile could affect him until faced with 100 fake smiles every day. Imagine if it was Clarke screaming his name in—

NO! Where the Hell had that come from? There was no freaking way that was ever going to happen. Sure the visitors to his bed had dropped in number when he realized they just wanted something from him that had nothing to do with his talents in the tent. But Clarke was the last person he should be thinking about that way. She sure as Hell wasn't thinking of him that way. Although the girl didn't know what she was missing. He would have her writhing beneath him, arching towards his hand and his mouth, trembling at his touch, begging him to—

Fuck! Why was his mind betraying him like this? He'd gone too many hours without conversation. He needed a distraction that didn't include images of naked Clarke "Hey, Princess! You too good to talk to me?"

Clarke looked back with a puzzled expression on her face. "Anything in particular you want to talk about?"

"Uh, these plants we're passing." He pointed at a bush with red berries, serrated leaves and annoying little thorns that had caught his clothing and scratched his skin several times in the last hour. "You and Monty are the only ones who know which of these things are medicine and which are poison. It's time you share the wealth."

Clarke continued walking. "I'm not showing you how to get high, Bellamy."

He felt a flash of anger. Was it because she turned her back on him or because she assumed the worst of him again? He wasn't sure which pissed him off more. "How about because the hunting parties go a few hours from camp and it would be good for people to know a little field medicine?"

She stopped this time and met his eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry."

She was…sorry? Irrationally, that made him angrier. Nice that she could afford the luxury of being 'sorry.' Being sorry meant being wrong. Being weak. And a strong leader didn't have the luxury of either of those things.

"So, are you going to tell me, or not?" he snapped.

She narrowed her eyes at him and Bellamy felt a thrill go through him at the anticipation of another epic Clarke / Bellamy showdown. With great care, Clarke plucked a single red berry off the bush and held it delicately at eye level. The red was translucent, almost glowing in the sunlight. "This is deadly nightshade. A single berry will kill a man in minutes. Even the juice on a man's skin will cause excruciating pain for days." She took a step closer to him.

It took every ounce of willpower not to back away from this girl he had apparently pissed off one too many times. But he couldn't show fear around Clarke. "Be careful with that thing, Princess. We need our healer."

"Oh, I'm not worried," she smirked. "I said it was deadly to men. I'm a woman." And with that quip, she popped the berry into her mouth.

"NO!" Bellamy lunged for her but he was too late, just like he was too late to stop Charlotte from leaping to her death. His vision went black for a moment and all sound disappeared. No, no, no, no. Not Clarke. He couldn't do this without her.

His hearing returned first. Laughter. Clarke came into focus. Her face bright. Not in pain.

"Oh boy, I got you good for a second." Clarke doubled over in laughter, hands on her knees."

Bellamy clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking. "What the fuck, Clarke?" He tried to keep his voice steady but failed miserably.

She straightened and her laughter died as she saw the look on his face. "You didn't actually think I'd...I'm a survivor, Bellamy, just like you are."

"Every single one of us down here has dealt with a lot of fucked up shit. I didn't think a 13 year old girl would murder someone and then commit suicide, either, but she did."

"Charlotte," Clarke whispered. "Oh, Bellamy. I didn't think how it would look to you."

Bellamy snatched the map from Clarke with a growl. "No, you didn't think." He marched ahead, trying to put as much space as possible between them.

"I'm sorry," she called.

"And stop saying you're sorry!"

Clarke followed after him, wisely staying silent in the face of his foul mood. Of course Clarke was the one person in camp other than Octavia who didn't fear his anger so her silence didn't last for long. She started by quietly pointing out a few plants. Her version of an apology since he'd told her to stop saying sorry. The white trunked tree was birch, and while the peeled bark could be used for paper and fire tinder, the fleshy part under the bark was a painkiller. Also a blood thinner, although considering the age of the 100, it would be a long time before they needed to worry about heart attacks. Another thick leafed plant was an antiseptic – not as good as the seaweed, but it would do in a pinch until a person could get back to camp.

As they continued walking, he felt the anger seeping out of him. It had just been a joke. A sick, twisted one, but he should have seen through it. Why didn't he see through it?

"Bellamy?" Clarke called from behind him.

He kept walking. "Yeah?" He wasn't ready to forgive her yet.

He felt her hand on his arm like a bolt of electricity and froze. Why did her touch affect him like this? He refused to look at her, afraid of what it would give away.

Clarke eased around to the front of him. If he turned away, he would look like a child, so he steeled himself to meet her gaze. What he saw wasn't what he expected. Clarke looked unsure of herself, and Clarke was always sure of herself.

"A peace offering?" she asked, tearing her eyes away from his to look downward. He followed her gaze to where she was holding the bottom of her shirt out to form a bowl; a bowl filled with the bright red "poison" berries. She must have been picking them as he walked ahead of her. "They're actually raspberries, and they're about to be the best thing you've ever tasted."

Reluctantly, he took one. "You sure you're not trying to kill me? You did say they were poisonous to man."

"Bellamy, " she sighed. "I'm trying to make amends here. Just shut up and eat it."

Taking a deep breath, he popped the berry in his mouth, where it burst in a juicy combination of sweet and sour earthy summer rain. "Oh my God," he moaned. "That's incredible!"

"Great! Have more!" Clarke's voice was high-pitched as she held her shirt bowl up a little higher which unfortunately/fortunately revealed a wide strip of her slender waist. Too. Distracting.

"Let's take a break." Bellamy sat heavily on a mossy log and Clarke followed; her shirt now resting on her lap to become the new non-revealing berry bowl. Thank God.

They ate in silence but soon enough the berries were gone and Clarke leapt up again. She took the map back from Bellamy. "We should be there in two hours."


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the kind reviews and all the follows and favorites. You make a girl feel loved! This one is definitelwandering wandering thoughts. But to be fair, how could a girl not have a wandering mind when it comes to Bellamy Blake?**

Clarke walked quickly through the mossy undergrowth. She didn't know why her mind was going the direction that it was, but it had her freaking out. When Bellamy ate that first raspberry he gave a moan of pleasure that was so primal it sent a shiver down her spine and into, um, other parts of her body. Imagine if he made that sound while on top of her, while inside of her. She was so hot and bothered by that thought that she practically flashed him while offering him berries. The sight of her must have ruined his appetite because he suggested the two of them sit down. Thank God. Except then he was reaching into her lap every few seconds for another berry. And she couldn't help but be affected when his fingers brushed her thigh. What if her shirt was out of the way? What if his fingers crept between her legs?

Clarke took a shaky breath and picked up the pace. One hour and 45 minutes later Clarke had a pretty good theory worked out in her head. It was just hormones. Finn had awoken certain womanly urges in her and since Finn wasn't going to be taking care of those urges any time soon, her body (independent of her brain, which never in a million years would have picked Bellamy) started looking for a suitable alternative. And since her body was going with base animal instinct, rather than personal compatibility, it picked the alpha male – the tallest, strongest guy, with an adorable smattering of freckles that—No! It wasn't the freckles. Definitely not the freckles. Genetically, it made sense to pick the guy with broad shoulders, narrow waist, and eyes you could lose yourself in. No! Not the eyes. Abs of steel. That was it. The time she burst into his tent she noted that he had clinically perfect abs. And his large hands looked like they could touch her in ways that—

Clarke shook her head and squinted to read the map in the dimming light. _Oh_. She stopped. "We're here."

"Then why don't I see anything?" Bellamy looked around in frustration. "And how are we going to find it now in the dark?"

"We don't need to look. We listen." Clarke stomped her foot. Nothing. She moved a foot and stomped again. "It was a secret military base, and it's underground." She stomped again. "Thank God, or the Grounders would have found it by now."

"What the Hell are you doing?"

"You'll see," Clarke said, stomped once more. "Or, more likely…" she stomped again and was rewarded by a dull metallic echo. "…you'll hear." She dropped to her knees in triumph and started sweeping dirt and leaves off the bunker door she knew would be there.

Bellamy crouched down to help her dig 97 years of debris away and soon a familiar looking rounded door appeared. He sat back on his heels. "How did you know to listen for the sound? That's not the type of thing the Ark would know."

Clarke was still high on their success and answered without thinking. "Finn found one near camp a couple weeks ago."

"A couple weeks? And you didn't think to share?"

_Oh_.

"I see now why you were so worried about me and my boys hoarding supplies. Of course we'd hoard supplies. It's what you and Finn are doing and you think of yourselves as the good guys." Bellamy's face was grim.

"We aren't hoarding!" Clarke cried. "The food had all gone bad and there were no medical supplies. Just some kids toys and a few pencils Finn brought back for me."

"Sweet that your boyfriend brought you gifts. What did you give him in return?"

Clarke felt her face flame red. _How did he know?_ "It wasn't like that!"

Bellamy's eyes grew wide and Clarke realized he'd just been guessing at how far she and Finn had gone. Crap.

His face grew dark again. "So keeping your bump and grind spot a secret was more important than sharing the existence of a protective bunker. "

Now Clarke was getting angry. "How dare you judge me! You've slept with a dozen girls since you got here. You know none of them even like you, right? They all just want favors from the great and powerful leader. So essentially, you're paying them to sleep with you. At least Finn and I-"

Bellamy stepped dangerously close. "Finn and you what? Are in love?" He seemed to choke on the word.

"No, but at least it was based on mutual respect, unlike you and your harem."

Bellamy snorted. "And how respected does Raven feel when you two are sneaking off? You're a hypocrite, Clarke Griffin. At least I'm not a cheater."

"You think we kept seeing each other once Raven got here?" Clarke shouted. "I had no idea he had a girlfriend. And Finn thought he'd never see her again. We didn't plan it. It just happened. And it ended the moment Raven's pod landed and she ran into Finn's arms, kissing him while I stood watching." Clarke winced. She hadn't meant to share that much, with Bellamy of all people.

But miraculously, most of Bellamy's anger had disappeared. "Spacewalker's an ass. So why keep the bunker a secret if he isn't cheating on Raven?"

"Oh, come on. You know what you were like when we first got here." She deepened her voice. "Whatever the Hell we want! No rules. No Ark. And if you don't like it we'll pin you down and remove your bracelet so your parents...so your parents," Her voice broke. "So your parents think you're dead."

"Clarke," Bellamy started.

She didn't let him finish. Wiping her cheeks, she pushed past him, twisted the hatch handle and tried to wrench it open. Wrenched is right. The door was rusted shut and she almost dislocated her shoulder trying to fling it open in anger.

"Let me help."

"I've got it!" she snapped, yanking at the door with both hands. It shifted and creaked but didn't move. Bellamy's warm hands covered hers on the handle. She pulled away and scrambled backwards. If he wanted to help he could open the damn door himself.

He positioned himself and gave a good tug upwards. With the crack of a century of rust snapping, the door creaked open. "You loosened it for me," he quipped.

"Whatever, Blake," she grumbled, pushing ahead to go down the ladder. She knew this was his roundabout way of trying to make peace but she wasn't in the mood. She was physically exhausted from the hike and mentally exhausted from their fight. They'd both said horrible things to each other and she needed some time.

Clarke hopped down and looked around the small room she found herself in. Corridors led off in radial spikes before disappearing in the darkness. She handed Bellamy a flashlight from her pack and took one for herself. Each corridor had a sign: Medical, Communications, Munitions, Mess, Officer Quarters, Enlisted Quarters. She felt like a kid in a candy store; not sure where to go first.

Bellamy didn't have that problem. "Hot damn! They have guns!" He took off down the corridor that said Munitions.

"We're here for medicine!" Clarke called, but she followed him anyway. As tough as she'd acted about hiking here alone, and as much as she and Bellamy had been yelling at each other just a few minutes earlier, she'd rather be with him than alone.

Clarke bumped into the wall that was Bellamy's back in her rush to catch up. He stood at the entrance to a large room, his flashlight reflecting off row upon row of gleaming metal guns. "I should have brought a bigger backpack," he breathed. He moved to the closest cabinet, and loaded two handguns. He handed one to Clarke. "Try not to shoot yourself…or me. Really try not to shoot me." He stuffed the second gun in his belt and started back down the corridor. He paused when he realized Clarke was still standing in the Munitions room.

"All these guns and you're only taking two?"

"Oh, we're ripping this place apart and doing full inventory before we leave here, but I figure you won't be able to focus until you check out the medicine situation."

Well, well, Bellamy Blake continued to surprise her. "Then why the two guns first?"

"I like to be prepared. I'm a frigging boy scout that way. Now come on. Because you've got about 20 minutes in Medical before I start to miss my new toys." He headed back down the corridor with more bounce to his step than she'd seen before.

Clarke laughed at this new playful side to Bellamy. Yes, it was brought on by a collection of deadly weapons, which was a bit weird, but then again, everything was a bit weird on Earth.

Twenty minutes later, she'd finished in medical. She had three piles of supplies on a table. Need to Have, Want to Have, Nice to Have. She knew there would be negotiations with Bellamy over the ratio of medical supplies to weapons that they'd be carrying back with them. In the Need to Have pile was the antibiotic for Finn. She had almost burst into tears when she found it, tucked on the back of a shelf in a closed cabinet. Until that moment, she hadn't truly believed that they'd succeed in finding it. Now she had a supply for several patients.

"Come on, Dr. Princess, back to Munitions."

Clarke laughed as she left the room. "Dr. Princess? Well, I suppose that's better than just Princess…" At the hatch room, she veered off to the Communications corridor.

"Hey!"

"…but still not my name. So we're visiting Communications first. I won't know what anything is but maybe we can describe it to Raven so she'll know if anything will be useful to her."

Bellamy read the labels on the equipment while Clarke wrote the information in her notebook. It meant nothing to her. Hopefully it would mean something to Raven.

She headed to the Mess Hall next. Clarke didn't think there would be anything critical there but it was kind of fun making Bellamy wait. He was practically vibrating beside her in anticipation of getting back to Munitions. She was reminded that he was only a few years older than her. Not much more than a kid himself.

Sure enough, the food supply was frightening and although the pots and dishes would be Nice to Have, they sure as heck weren't lugging any back with them on this trip.

Back at the hatch room, Clarke stretched her arms above her head and feigned a yawn. "I'm a little tired. I think I need a nap before checking out Munitions."

Bellamy stood gaping at her, before his eyes narrowed in realization. He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face the Munitions corridor. "Move, or I carry you there."

The fact that she actually considered not moving to see if he'd actually carry her let her know what an exceptionally bad idea it would be to keep standing there. She hurried back to Munitions.

Bellamy had a tough time deciding what to take. More guns vs more ammunition. Large powerful rifles vs handguns they could carry more of.

Clarke was trying to find the bullets that matched a gun with a bunch of letters and numbers that Bellamy insisted they needed when she heard a gasp behind her.

She spun around, hand on the original gun Bellamy had given her.

Bellamy had a huge grin on his face. "Look what I found!" He was holding what looked to be a hand grenade in each hand.

"Oh my God, put those could be unstable."

Reluctantly, he put his prizes back in the box he'd found them in. "You're no fun at all."

Clarke grinned. "And you're usually no fun either. I kind of like this Bellamy Blake. Assuming the big kid doesn't blow off both his arms of course."

He froze and the brightness faded from his eyes. "We should finish up and get some sleep. We leave at dawn.

Apparently telling the self-proclaimed leader of a bunch of marooned juvenile delinquents that he was a big kid was a bad idea. _Macho idiot._


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the wait. My goal was to update once a week but I didn't meet that goal this time around due to other stuff that I'm all ranted out on so you're saved from hearing about it. :-)**

**Warning: Graphic flashback of violence that you already saw on the show. **

_Reluctantly, he put his prizes back in the box he'd found them in. "You're no fun at all."_

_Clarke grinned. "And you're usually no fun either. I kind of like this Bellamy Blake. Assuming the big kid doesn't blow off both his arms of course."_

_He froze and the brightness faded from his eyes. "We should finish up and get some sleep. We leave at dawn._

_Apparently telling the self-proclaimed leader of a bunch of marooned juvenile delinquents that he was a big kid was a bad idea. Macho idiot._

* * *

_Big kid?_ If Bellamy thought Clarke didn't respect him before, she sure as shit didn't respect him now. So he got a little excited at finding something that could save all their lives. So what? But then Clarke started looking at him like he was a fucking puppy. He needed to get their relationship back in balance. She was the prissy know-it-all and he was the asshole leader who would do whatever it took to keep the group safe.

Back at the hatch room, Clarke started down the Enlisted Quarters corridor. Was she serious?

"Yo, Princess, I think your royal status entitles you to officer quarters."

She turned with a sigh. "Whatever. I'm tired and it's just one night."

"Well maybe it's nothing special for old time royalty like you, but I'm new at this king thing so I'm taking my opportunity."

Clarke rolled her eyes and motioned for him to go first. "Arrogance before beauty."

"Damn straight!" Bellamy strut down the corridor. Balance in the universe restored.

The officers' quarters were small rooms strung out on either side of the corridor. He picked one at random and went in. Clarke didn't follow him in. He went back out to where Clarke was going into the room across the corridor. He tried to follow her but she flat handed his chest. "Not a chance," she said.

"Don't flatter yourself, Princess. There are two beds in there and it's safer this way."

Bellamy could see Clarke weighing her options, purple shadows of exhaustion visible below her eyes.

"We're both tired, Clarke. Don't fight me on this."

Wordlessly, she entered the room and flopped on one of the beds face first. "Oh my God," she sighed. This is way better than your stupid guns."

"Not possible." Bellamy kicked off his shoes, lay down on the other bed and sunk into it to a level of soft supportiveness that seemed to defy gravity. Sure, the beds in camp were horrible but even the Ark had nothing like this. OK, this was a close second to the guns. He wasn't going to admit it though.

Clark turned off her flashlight so Bellamy did the same. He heard the soft rustle of her removing her jacket and slipping under the covers. He tried not to imagine anything more.

With no natural or artificial light, the room was in utter darkness. Bellamy waved his hand in front of his face. Nothing. At least Clarke couldn't complain about seeing too much, he thought, as he sat up to remove his shirt and drop it on the end of the bed. He considered getting more comfortable by taking off his pants, too, but decided against it. Clarke might wake up before him and turn on a flashlight. Yes, it would piss her off, and although he normally enjoyed that, the idea of her seeing him almost naked left him feeling vulnerable.

He lay back down again and between the long hike and the soft bed, he was asleep in seconds.

* * *

_The grounder was chained to the wall. He'd kidnapped Octavia. Stabbed Finn. Clarke knelt at his feet begging for the antidote to the poison. He had to get that information. For Clarke. He punched the grounder in the jaw, and his head jerked sideways, blood flying from his mouth. "WHICH ONE IS THE ANTIDOTE?!" he screamed. The grounder just glared at him._

_Clarke was pleading, Octavia was sobbing. He coiled his belt around his hand and whipped the man across the chest. The wet sound of ripping flesh turned his stomach. A fair fight was one thing, but hitting a chained man was another. He swallowed back the bile and swung again. Raw flesh now lay in ribbons across the grounder's chest. Bellamy felt sick but he couldn't show weakness. He closed his eyes and swung the belt again._

_There was a blood curdling scream and his eyes flew open as his belt came down on Octavia, chained and bleeding, her toes barely touching the ground. One eye was blackened and swollen shut, her nose broken, her face cut, and her clothes in bloody shreds from the whipping. "You did this," she rasped, her one eye filled with hate. Then the eye fluttered closed and her head fell forward._

"NOOOOOOO!"


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Wow, was not expecting the last five minutes of the season finale at all! Although when I think about it, it makes complete sense. It's going to completely change the dynamics of the show for next season. Glad I got certain descriptions into my story before the finale or I would have had a hard time writing them, knowing what I know now. I prefer writing during hiatus for this reason**.

**(I hope that was spoiler-free enough for anyone who hasn't seen the episode yet.)**

"NOOOOOOO!"

Clarke's eyes flew open to…nothing. Blackness. Panic swelled in her chest. Something was wrong on the Ark.

"Octavia, oh God, I'm sorry."

She knew that voice. Bellamy. She was on Earth. At Mount Weather with Bellamy. But Octavia wasn't there, which meant Bellamy was having a nightmare. And if it involved his sister, it had to be horrific.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he choked out.

Her heart ached for him and the raw pain she could hear in his voice. She stumbled from her bed, hands in front of her, moving towards the sound of his laboured breathing. "Bellamy! It's a nightmare. Open your eyes." Clarke gave her head a shake as she reached the edge of his bed. Bellamy wouldn't be able to see any more than she could. So it wouldn't be his sense of sight that would bring him out of his nightmare.

"Don't die. Please don't die," he sobbed.

She reached for him in the inky black, placing her hands on either side of his face as he lay thrashing in the bed. "Bellamy, Octavia is fine. She's back at camp." She leaned down until she was practically on top of him and pressed her forehead to his. Anything to try to focus his attention on her. To break the cycle of pain. She was a healer and she desperately needed to heal Bellamy. He trembled beneath her touch but no longer thrashed.

"Bellamy, it's Clarke." She moved one hand to stroke his messy curls, now damp with perspiration.

He seemed to still at her words, his breath hot on her cheek. "Clarke?"

"Hi," she whispered. "You're fine. Octavia is fine. We're at Mount – oof!"

Bellamy threw his arms around her with a ragged sigh, clinging tight to her like his life depended on it. And at that moment, maybe it did.

Clarke hesitated for a second before wrapping her own arms around Bellamy's normally strong shoulders. Shoulders that had taken on so much weight since he was a young child and even more since they'd reached Earth. Clarke sunk further into the mattress, feeling both fiercely protective of and safely protected by the man who lay beside her. And as they clung to each other she wondered which of them was healing the other.

* * *

**A/N: Keep reading. I posted two chapters since this one was o short.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: If you just came to this from an e-mail alert you might have missed chapter 6 which I also just posted. I'm posting two chapters at once since they're each so short. One of these days I've got to try writing a story where I'm willing to switch POV within a chapter so I stop having these irregular length chapters.**

* * *

Bellamy woke up refreshed. Strange that he felt this awake when it was still dark outside. Wait. His pillow was...breathing. He didn't remember inviting a girl back to his tent. He thought he'd kicked that habit. He raised his head off the girl's chest and his eyes strained to see his bed mate. Why was it so damned dark?

His movement caused her to stir. One hand slid through his hair as she mumbled, "Too...early."

A shiver went through him. Clarke? It came back in a rush. Mount Weather. The officer's quarters. His nightmare. And Clarke. Clarke pulling him out of his nightmare. Clarke comforting him, holding him, seeing him at his weakest. She had murmured that everything would be OK, and for a brief moment of time, in the absence of light and the responsibilities of camp, he'd believed her.

And now they were laying together, his arm around her waist, their legs tangled together, and those healing fingers running through his hair. He scrambled up to a sitting position, his body already missing the feel of her body on his. _Oh shit!_ This was bad. Really bad.

He reached under the pillow for where he'd left his flashlight and flicked it on. The light was harsh after the utter darkness and he turned it away from them.

_Damn_. Light was a bad idea. Now he could see her. Clarke lay in his bed, her hair fanned out across the pillow, her lips slightly parted in early morning sleepiness as she rubbed her eyes. She was beautiful in a way that took his breath away. Clarke blinked a few times before fixing her blue eyes on his. Her brow creased. "What's wrong, Bellamy? Did the nightmare come back?"

Bellamy leapt up from the bed. "No, I'm fine." He snatched his shirt off the bed and yanked it over his head.

"You know you can talk to me about it, right?"

_Oh, God, make her stop!_ "I said I'm fine," he snapped. "I don't need to talk about a stupid dream."

"Bellamy," she warned."You don't have to do this."

"Do what, Clarke? You'd prefer we sit around, braid each other's hair and talk about our 'feelings'? It ain't going to happen, especially not with you."

A hurt look went across Clarke's face. Aw, Hell. He didn't mean that. He started to say something but Clarke stormed over to her own bed and was pulling on her jacket. She was pissed. Once again, balance was restored in the universe. So why didn't this feel like a win?

Shoes on, Clarke grabbed her flashlight and left the room a little dimmer than it had been. "Grab your guns," she called. "I need to get back to Finn as soon as possible."

Bellamy winced but kept his mouth shut. As much as it killed him to admit it, he realized now that he didn't have the right to comment on that relationship.

* * *

The trip back to camp was going quickly and quietly. Threading their way through a boulder field, Clarke was hopping over crevices she'd crawled over the day before. Her urge to get back to camp, away from him, was apparently stronger than her fear.

A butterfly fluttered between them and he almost joked about how if Octavia had been with them it would have been one backpack filled with guns, one with medical supplies and one filled with butterflies and glowing mushrooms. Clarke would have chastised him for not giving Octavia enough credit, but at the same she would have laughed, because it was kind of true.

But Bellamy didn't make that joke. He knew more than ever that he and Clarke couldn't be friends. Friendship made him weak. Friendship with Clarke would make him especially weak. And anything more than friendship with her (oh, God!) would leave him a babbling fool chatting about his feelings and hugging it out rather than fighting.

No, the lives of Octavia and the rest of the hundred depended on him being strong. And that's why he had to stay as far as possible from Clarke Griffin.

The silence between them was in their favour as the Grounder didn't hear them coming.


	8. Chapter 8

Bellamy. _Ugh_. Every time she thought he might be half way human, he proved himself to be the biggest jerk on Earth (and that included the Grounders). Even though logically, she'd known for weeks that Bellamy hated her and everything he thought she stood for, she was lulled into thinking they'd come to an understanding on their trip. But when he woke up that morning and realized who had been comforting him the night before, the look of horror on his face almost crushed her. Stupid. She shouldn't even care, except that she had to work with Bellamy, making sure his hot-headed ideas didn't get them all killed. And having to work with a guy who loathed you was exhausting. She was relieved that soon she'd be able to escape from his cold silence. Too bad they couldn't enjoy a moment of triumph together at their successful mission. Heaven forbid the guy have any 'feelings' except anger and macho posturing.

Leaving the boulder field for the forest, Clarke could hear a babbling brook to the right of them. Her water bottle was empty so she pushed through the bushes towards the open stream bed with Bellamy right behind her.

She saw movement before the movement registered as human. Bellamy already had his gun out and was aiming at the Grounder who had a bow and arrow trained on her. "Drop your weapon!" he bellowed with authority, stepping in front of her. For the first time she could picture him as an Ark guard.

The arrow trembled but the small Grounder stood his ground. He looked about 14, just a boy.

"Don't shoot!" Clarke cried.

"I won't have to if he puts down the bow and arrow." Bellamy's voice was like steel and the steel that was trained on the boy's chest was rock steady. He spoke louder. "You know what a gun is, right? I can put a bullet through your heart before your finger can even twitch on that string."

The boy's hands were shaking and Clarke noticed that the bow and arrow was crudely made. Would it even aim straight?

"Come on, man, be smart here. I'd kill you in a second, but Clarke here is kind of soft-hearted and I'm pretty sure right now she's working on her argument for why I shouldn't do it. Don't give me an excuse to kill you before she figures it out."

Wide-eyed, the boy glanced between them.

"Too many people have died already," Clarke said softly. "We want peace with your people. But I'm not willing to die for peace." Clarke raised the gun she'd taken from her belt while the boy had been looking at Bellamy. "If you shoot at Bellamy, I will kill you. So put the bow down...please."

"I thought you'd be good cop," Bellamy muttered.

"I'll be good cop after he puts down his weapon."

The bow clattered to the ground and the boy stumbled backwards, ready to run.

"Stop!" Bellamy commanded, and the boy stopped.

"What are you doing?" Clarke hissed. She knew only too well what had happened to the last Grounder Bellamy had captured.

He pushed the boy's down to sitting. "If we aren't going to kill him, I've got to at least give us a head start so he doesn't call his friends on us." He pulled twine out of his bag and started wrapping it around the boy's ankles. "You look like a smart kid. You'll be able to get yourself out of this in a few minutes." Bellamy rubbed the end of the twine against a sharp rock until it snapped, then tied it off, ready to start on the boy's wrists.

Clarke didn't like leaving the kid helpless, even for a few minutes. What if a panther found him. Or the-

A horn sounded in the distance and for the first time, the boy struggled frantically, trying to stand up but falling sideways. "Help me!" he cried. "I don't want to die." With his still untied hands he scrambled to untie his ankles.

Clarke froze. The boy spoke English.

"The boulder field!" Bellamy grabbed her arm, his eyes wide, ready to haul her with him.

The boy screamed, panic on his face. The fog was already rolling towards them down the stream bed.

Bellamy winced. "Aw, Hell." Letting go of her arm, he hoisted the boy up and threw him over his shoulder, shouting, "Run!"

Clarke ran, stunned that she hadn't had to plead with Bellamy to take the boy with them. They made it back to the boulder field and spotted a dark crevice between a tumble of huge stones. She hoped it was big enough.

Bellamy pushed her ahead of him and into dark hole before shoving the still tied up boy in after.

The opening was too wide. They couldn't get far enough back. The fog could get in. And when Bellamy and the Grounder boy were screaming in pain she wouldn't be able to ease their pain as she'd be screaming right there with them.

No! They weren't dead yet. Clarke hauled the boy in as far as she could, making room for Bellamy. Even though the boy was smaller than her it was still a struggle. And yet Bellamy had been able to keep up with her while carrying him as they ran to safety.

The cave grew darker as Bellamy's frame filled the entrance, blocking most of the light. "Clarke, your backpack. I'm going to try to block the entrance as much as I can." He was already removing his own and shoving it against the bright hole. "Your bag too, kid."

Clarke hadn't even noticed the boy was carrying a black bag with zippers and everything, slung over his shoulder. He leaned forward, allowing Clarke to pull it over his head. "I-I have a fog sheet in there."

Clarke gasped. If it was anything like Finn's fog sheet, there was hope. The main compartment held only nuts and a damp leather pouch with a bit of seaweed sticking out the top.

"Front pocket. Hurry!" he pleaded.

Clarke yanked a paper thin silver sheet out and shook it to unfold it. It was bigger than it looked. She flattened it against the entrance, tucking the edges in cracks, scraping knuckles in her hurry. Bellamy used loose rocks to hold down he bottom.

When only a few thin cracks of light seeped around the edges, the two of them scrambled back from the entrance, just as they heard the frantic squeals of a small animal caught in the fog outside. They pressed themselves against the back wall of the cave, Clarke shoulder to shoulder with Bellamy and the Grounder boy. An unlikely alliance if she ever saw one.

"You saved us. Thank you." Clarke said, then thought about it some more. "But we saved you, too. Bellamy risked his life carrying you. We don't want to kill anyone. We just want peace." Clarke started to get excited. "If you go back and tell your people what happened, how we saved you when we could have easily let you die maybe-"

"Don't waste your breath, Princess." Bellamy muttered.

"I prefer diplomacy to weapons," she said. "And unless you're in a hurry to get out in that fog, I might as well 'waste my breath' in here."

He shrugged. "Knock yourself out. All I'm saying is that a tribe that puts a spear in Jasper's chest before we even knew they existed probably won't be swayed by us saving a kid that needed saving only because we tied him up in the first place."

What the Hell was he doing? Clarke thought angrily. Why sabotage a chance at peace, no matter how slim the chance actually was?

"Besides, being a guard on the Ark, I learned a thing or two about warrior mentality. And there is no way this Grounder warrior is going to admit to being captured by two people from the sky."

Bellamy was losing it if he thought this kid, with his scavenged pre-nuclear bag filled with nuts and seaweed was a warrior. She opened her mouth to say as much when she felt Bellamy's hand squeeze hers. The intimate gesture shocked her into silence. His eyes met hers, asking her to trust him. And she realized, to her great surprise, that she did.

She gave a small nod and he squeezed her hand again, relief obvious on his face. Bellamy had some sort of plan. And it didn't involve the Grounder boy as a proverbial olive didn't want the boy saying they saved him...he didn't want the boy saying he saw them at all.

Of course. She'd been so caught up in the idea of this kid sending a message of peace that she missed the much more likely reality - that the Grounders would wonder what they were doing that far from their camp and step up patrols of the area. They'd never be able to make another trip to Mount Weather. Better to convince this would-be warrior, with his crude bow and arrow, that warriors don't talk.

So far, the boy was being a good little warrior on the no talking front. Now that the immediate danger had passed he'd gone mute again. Did he really think they'd forget that little tidbit that he spoke English? That was fine. Bellamy was doing enough talking for the three of them.

"There was this one guard on the Ark, Skylar, who admitted to some of the guys that he was giving extra rations to a few of the prisoners. And sure, a lot of us did it. We weren't all monsters. " A shadow crossed his face. "Well, not at that point, anyway." He shook off the memory. "But you never admitted to it. Admitted to being soft. To being weak. Warriors are trained to look for weakness and attack, and that's what the other guards did. They tormented Skylar for months, until he eventually quit. Last I heard he was working agriculture.

Clarke stared at the former guard. Had she just gotten a peek into the psyche of Bellamy Blake? Don't show weakness? She had to admit, it had worked pretty well for the de facto leader so far. The 100 would follow him to Hell and back.

Bellamy continued telling stories of his time as a guard that made it sound like he had the best job on the Ark. Clarke would have been grinding her teeth to stumps at the macho antics of the testosterone laden men who often misused their power on the Ark except for one thing: Bellamy was still holding her hand. And sure, she got that this was part of the ruse. Because if the boy suspected they were in the woods looking for weapons and medicine, he'd swallow his pride and confess to being captured by them to protect his tribe. But young lovers just looking for some privacy was a perfectly harmless reason to be out didn't make it any less distracting when Bellamy brought her hand up to rest it on his knee, stroking the back with his thumb as he continued talking. How could he carry on with his stories? She could barely think straight.

She saw the boy's eyes flick to their intertwined fingers. _Gotcha_.

Clarke tried to adjust her back against the wall of the cave as a rock had been digging into her right shoulder. Hmm. Why not? she twisted her upper body and settled herself against the solid warmth of Bellamy's chest. All for the sake of the ruse, of course. But damn, the ruse felt nice. They could go back to hating each other after the fog passed, but for now, her traitorous hormones with its illogical attractions had a free pass. She snuggled into Bellamy's chest further.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: So, I noticed that I managed to spell Bellamy's name wrong in the last sentence of the last chapter. Mortification! Not the way I wanted to end a chapter. Feel free to let me know in a review or PM if you see stuff like that. Typos yank me out of my reading zone and I don't want to do that to my readers.**

It had been a great and terrible scheme, Bellamy thought. When he had seized on the idea of convincing the kid his Grounder buddies would beat the shit out of him if he confessed to being captured Bellamy realized he also needed a good reason why he and Clarke had been out there in Grounder territory. He'd grabbed her hand as part of a silent message not to blow his plan. Somehow, he never let go again.

Bellamy was good at thinking on his feet. He had to be after a lifetime of lying to protect it should have been easy to pretend with Clarke. But that was the problem - it was too easy.

On the Ark he'd never had more than one night stands. He couldn't. Girlfriends demanded time, long talks about feelings, and permission to pop by his pod anytime of the day or night. With all his secrets there was no way he could do that. But it hadn't been much of a sacrifice anyway. No girl held his attention that long.

So why did the cuddle fest he and Clarke put on for the kid come so naturally? Putting their clasped hands on his knee so the kid could see them holding hands had been deliberate on his part. It was only a few minutes later he noticed he had been stoking the back of Clarke's hand with his thumb.

She leaned against him at that point, her body fitting perfectly with his, and when Bellamy remembered to breathe he realized he was in trouble. There was something happening here and it was a Hell of a lot more dangerous then sex. As he rested his chin on the top of Clarke's head he contemplated the dangerous game he was playing. Shooting Jaha was dumb, but starting to fall for the one person who made the 100 question his leadership was pure idiocy.

Bellamy and Clarke left the kid in the cave with his fog blanket still in place, ankles and wrists bound, but a decently sharp rock given to him that he could use to slowly saw his way out. It would give them the head start they needed. Bellamy left him with his bow but took the arrows, just in case the kid decided to do something stupid.

In a move that was either really sweet or really devious, Clarke had kissed the kid on the forehead, messed up his hair and told to stay safe. Ouch! Talk about loss of man points.

After pretending to be a couple, they slipped into an awkward silence for the hike back. Idly, Bellamy wondered if they would ever see the kid again and if they did, would they be trying to kill each other. If they were, would one of them hesitate? Aw, who was he kidding; he'd hesitate. He'd been spending too much time with Clarke.

When they saw the wall in the distance, they picked up the pace. They'd done it. Made it to Mount Weather, gotten weapons and medical supplies, interacted with a Grounder where no one died or was beaten, and survived an acid fog.

The sentinels called out their return and soon they were surrounded by people celebrating their return.

"We have guns!" Bellamy shouted to great whoops of joy. "And we have medical supplies for the first idiot who shoots himself in the foot." Lots of laughter for that one and a couple of people slapped Clarke on the back in acknowledgement of who would be patching them up.

Bellamy continued. "Training starts tomorrow. We don't have infinite ammo so people with lousy aim won't even get near a gun. Prove to me that you're a damn good shot with a bow and arrow and then you'll get a chance to show me what you can do with a gun. From that, only the best sharp shooters will get guns to practice with and carry on them. Sharpshooters will be given extra privileges and the comfort of knowing they always have a weapon with them."

Bellamy could see Clarke watching him, a questioning look on her face. Here we go, he thought. She'll be criticizing my plan in 3...2...1... She surprised him by staying silent.

"But Bellamy," Dax piped up, "We don't have any bows and arrows."

"You think that excuse will work on the Grounders when they attack us?" Bellamy snapped, confused that his prediction has been wrong. "Figure it out."

There was a mad scramble as people dashed off in groups of two or three, or alone. They would need saplings to bend into bows, string or wire from the drop ship, metal or stone for arrow heads.

Once they were alone Clarke stepped closer to Bellamy and spoke to him for the first time since leaving the Grounder boy. "Your contest is flawed. Whoever makes the best bow and arrows will probably end up with the best aim."

"I guess everyone better make damn good equipment then."

"And what about people who might have ended up as our best shooters who don't even get a chance because they're hopeless crafters?"

Bellamy scoffed. "Who said people are only using their own bow and arrows for the contest?"

"But that's the impression everyone got."

"Good. That'll give them incentive. And by the time everyone has had a chance to try every bow we'll be able to declare a master bow builder, too. There's not enough guns to go around."

Clarke nodded and started heading towards the drop ship.

"That's it? No more arguing about it?" Bellamy wasn't sure why he was trying to stir up trouble where none existed.

Clarke turned but kept walking backwards. "Why would I? It's a good idea."

"Can I get that in writing, Princess?" Bellamy shouted. "Clarke Griffin thinks Bellamy Blake has good ideas."

Clarke held up one finger as she called back. "One good idea, Blake. Don't let it go to your head."

Bellamy grinned as he headed back to his tent. He'd take that one as a win.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Warning: A little bit of Flarke here. Hee hee.**

**Thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites! Feedback reassures me that I'm not speaking to an empty room.**

* * *

_Finn_. He'd be worried about her by now. She'd told Raven not to mention her trip to Mount Weather but 24 hours with his doctor missing and he would have had to be told something. Strange, she'd only really thought about Finn in the abstract while she'd been gone - as the patient she had to fight for. The only time she thought of him as the boy who had broken her heart was when she defended their relationship to Bellamy.

But at least this excursion had been a distraction for her. Now she had to face all the problems of camp. Face Finn. Hear him lecture her about putting herself in danger. _Weee_.

Clarke entered the make-shift medical bay. Finn was alone, struggling to get out of bed, one arm wrapped around his wound.

"Stop!" Clarke shouted as she rushed towards him, scared that he was going to hurt himself. "I don't want to have to sew you up again."

A smile brightened his pain-filled expression as he sunk back to the cot. "Thank God you're OK. I heard the hollering outside and hoped it was you back safe, but I needed to be sure." Then he frowned. "You shouldn't have put yourself at risk like that, sneaking through Grounder territory for medicine for me. It was stupid."

Yes, someone had told him. "Well, if you don't want the antibiotics, I can always take them back to Mount Weather." She started to gently pull back his bandage.

Finn laughed at that, but it turned into a hiss of pain. Under the bandage the wound was surrounded by the same hot redness as 24 hours earlier, but the area had grown larger. This wasn't an infection that was going away on its own. Clarke didn't want to think of what would happen if she hadn't found the right medication.

"I guess as long as you have the drugs, I'll take them," he said. "I'd hate for your trip to have been a waste of time."

"Thanks for being so accommodating." Clarke retrieved the antibiotics from her backpack and went to get a cup of water so Finn could choke down the first of his pills. "So…someone ratted me out?"

Finn cocked his head at her. "Come on, you didn't think you could disappear for 24 hours without me noticing, did you?"

She handed him the pills and the water. "People could have told you I was getting more seaweed, and then had to go out to bring back a member of a hunting party who'd been injured. Even saying I had checked in on you but you were sleeping could have strung it out for 24 hours." Dang, one small performance with Bellamy for one small Grounder and she was an expert liar now? "Who told?" she asked, kind of wanting to know who not to trust with her secrets in the future.

"I won't reveal my source but I made someone believe I already knew where you were and we were just having a casual conversation about the details of your expedition."

Clarke sighed. "It was Jasper, wasn't it?"

Finn's eyes shifted away from hers. _It *was* Jasper. _

"How long did it take? Five minutes?"

His expression went dark. "I wish it had been that quick. No, if you'd only had a five minute head start I would have stopped you. I didn't get the information until you were five hours out, and even then Jasper and Monty had to pin me to the bed until Raven convinced me I'd never catch up to you in my current condition." He glanced down at his bandage bitterly.

Clarke wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly. He was going to chase her with an infected knife wound. "You would have died. What were you thinking?"

He looked up at her with determination. "I was thinking I wasn't going to let you risk your life for me. I care about you too much to let anything happen to you."

"Don't say that." Clarke whispered, glancing around the ship nervously, but there was no one else to hear Finn's confession. Where was Raven, anyway?"

"I've had close to 24 hours to think about what I haven't been saying to you." He took her hand in his and for some crazy reason, she couldn't help but remember Bellamy doing the same just a few short hours ago.

"I love you, Clarke," he said, and his smile shone bright on his face.

He'd said it. Clarke wished she could push the words back in, rewind to where those feelings weren't out there in the world, having to be dealt with. She blinked back tears. "No, you love Raven. She risked everything to come down here for you. You can't do this to her."

"Yes, I love her, but not the same way I love you. I stayed with Raven because I felt obliged to her."

"And now?"

"And now Raven once again showed she's smarter than me. She pointed out the lengths I was willing to go to to keep you safe, told me I was obviously in love with you, and then broke up with me."

Clarke felt her breaths coming in short gulps. Maybe there was something wrong with the air on Earth after all because she felt like he was suffocating. This is what she wanted, right? Before Raven arrived, and Clarke got hurt, and everything got awkward.

Finn's confidence seemed to fade at Clarke's silence. "I love you," he repeated. "Please tell me you love me, too."

Clarke opened her mouth but the words were stuck. Or maybe she wasn't sure what words were supposed to come out.

There was a crash behind her. Clarke spun around to see Bellamy standing in the doorway, a metal bowl spinning on the floor at his feet. "Oops. I dropped that," he said, but he didn't sound sorry.

Crap, he'd heard Finn's confession. She wasn't sure why it bothered her so much, but it did. Heck, he should be happy Finn and Raven were broken up since his selective moral code seemed to have a problem with Finn cheating on Raven with her.

But Bellamy looked anything but happy as his jaw clenched and unclenched, staring at her with an intensity that sent a shiver down her spine.

But she was Clarke Griffin so instead of wilting under his gaze, she stuck her chin up a little higher and asked, "What do you want, Bellamy?"

"You."

Her heart stuttered at the implication and Bellamy must have realized how it sounded as well as he shook his head, breaking his stare. "I mean, your Mom is on video link. Raven says she's needed to talk to you since last night."

A feeling of dread swept over her. Whatever this was, it couldn't be good. Clarke quickly turned to retape Finn's bandage.

Finn put a hand over hers. "Clarke..."

She pasted on a smile. "I'll be back to check on you later." Then she hurried out of the drop ship, brushing past Bellamy who didn't move out of her way.

Raven had moved the radio into one of the tents. Between the Grounder prisoner on the top floor potentially eavesdropping and Finn in sick bay who needed his rest, there hadn't been anyplace left on the drop ship for private communication with the Ark.

Clarke pushed the canvas aside and entered what had somehow become Raven's engineering tent.

Seeing her there, Raven spoke into the mic, "She's here, Abby."

She heard her mom's staticky voice. "Thanks, Raven. Can I talk to her alone, please?"

"Sure thing. I'll talk to you later." Then she gave a small nod to Clarke and left the tent.

Well, Raven hadn't tried to claw her eyes out. That was a good start. But the fact that her Mom wanted to talk to her alone was suspicious. She sat down in front of the grainy video link, and facing her mom, all of her anger at what she had done to her dad came flooding back.

"Clarke! Thank God you're OK. Raven told me where you went. I was so scared but at the same time I know how brave and resourceful you are, so I knew you'd be OK."

Her mom was babbling and flattering her. Seriously? She must think it was time to try to convince Clarke to forgive her for getting Dad killed. "Look, I'm tired from the hike and I don't know if I'll ever be ready to talk about Dad, so if that's all you want to talk about, I'm going to go."

"Wait, Clarke. That's not it...not today anyway. It's something else." She hesitated, and Clarke's feeling of dread returned. "I need to tell you something and it's best if it's kept a secret right now."

"Mom! You wanting to keep a secret is what got Dad floated. Now you expect me to keep one?" She was so angry she was shaking.

"You'll understand better when I explain." Abby said. "But it's too big a secret to hold alone. So I need you to pick one other person to hear what I have to tell you. Someone who you trust, is calm under pressure and will be able to support you in keeping the secret for a few weeks."

The dread sunk to the pit of her stomach and lay there. A few weeks was the timeframe for the drop ships. She tried to focus on her mom's request. She immediately thought of Finn. He was first person she'd been able to depend on when they landed. She trusted him with her life, although maybe not her heart, and he sure as Hell kept Raven a secret. "Finn Collins. He's the one with the knife wound, but if we move the radio back into sick bay it'll work.

Abby looked offscreen and Clarke could hear her typing. "Sorry, Clarke, there's another criteria he doesn't fit."

What the heck was this other criteria? She thought of Raven but even though she didn't seem to be blaming Clarke for the Finn situation, she didn't think she'd be able to share a secret with her for two weeks, leaning only on each other for support. Jasper was obviously out; he couldn't keep a secret for five minutes. "How about Monty Green?"

Abby looked offscreen again before giving Clarke a sympathetic look. "Sorry, he doesn't work either."

This was getting ridiculous. She was rapidly running out of people she trusted on this planet. She considered Octavia. She trusted her but she wasn't sure how she'd be with a secret that was obviously big. Octavia had never had to keep secrets; she was the secret. Now her brother on the other hand-

Clarke stilled at the thought. Bellamy. He could definitely keep a secret, he shone in a crisis, and...and...she trusted him. He was a macho posturing idiot who would probably always piss her off, but somehow she knew she'd be able to work with him to keep this secret. "Bellamy Blake," she said with confidence, "and I've now run out of people I trust so whatever this extra criteria is, he'd better fit it."

Abby's eyes went wide. She obviously didn't need to type into her computer to know that name. "But, but he tried to murder Chancellor Jaha."

"To protect the sister that Jaha was sending to her death along with the rest of us! And it worked. He kept Octavia safe, and with her, all of us. So, yeah, the 100 have called bygones on that particular crime." Clarke could hear the sarcasm oozing out in that last sentence. She was still so angry with her mom, and 24 hours with Bellamy maybe wore off on her a little.

Abby looked stunned, but she nodded her head warily. "He actually fits my other criteria perfectly, and based on his history he can obviously keep a secret, but are you sure he's the one to share this with?"

"Absolutely." Clarke grabbed a walkie talkie. "Hey, Raven, can you find Bellamy for me. My mom wants to talk to him, too."

There was a crackle on the walkie talkie. "No problem, I see him right now."

"Thanks, Raven." Clarke put down the crude radio, then added another reassurance for her mom. "Bellamy is actually our leader. Whatever this is, I'm pretty sure he needs to know."

"Bellamy Blake is leading your group?" Abby asked with surprise. "We thought you were the leader."

"We figured the Ark didn't need to know that the guy who shot Jaha was running things down here. I'm more of an advisor. See, Mom, I can keep a secret without having to be locked up in solitary." There was that snark again. _Wait_. They locked her up on the Ark for not being willing to keep a secret. The only reason she would be chosen to keep this one was because they had thought she was the leader.

Abby's brow was furrowed. "Clarke...I'm afraid..."

"No!" She shouted. "You are not shutting me out of this!"

"I'm sorry, Clarke, but you don't fit the other criteria. We thought we had to tell you as leader, but it turns out we don't."

The tent brightened as Bellamy pushed through the canvas. "What's happening, Clarke?"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Shirtless Bellamy! The secret revealed! Angst! Comfort!**

* * *

Bellamy was chopping wood with an axe they'd taken from the Grounder's cave after they captured him. He'd only been at it a few minutes but he was already working up a sweat. He yanked his shirt over his head and threw it to one side before setting up the next log. Slam! Two chunks of wood clattered to the ground. That one was Finn's head. He'd already hurt Clarke once. Bellamy wasn't about to let it happen again because...because she was their healer and he needed her focused, not mooning over a space walking flake who only declared his feelings for her after his first girlfriend broke up with him.

A lot had happened while he and Clarke were gone and his favourite gossip, Octavia, had filled him in on all of it. In addition to the big break up, the Grounder had escaped. Bellamy knew that should have been the first thing on his mind, but if he was honest with himself, he was kind of relieved. They weren't going to get any information out of him and Bellamy didn't have the stomach to kill him so all he was doing was eating rations and taking up space in the drop ship.

He swung again and another log was split in half.

Raven appeared before him, "What did that log ever do to you?"

"What do you need, Reyes?" he growled as another log shattered. Raven was the one who'd paved the way for Finn to go after Clarke so he wasn't feeling real generous towards her.

"Abby needs to talk to you."

Bellamy mentally flipped though all the teens in camp but he couldn't remember an Abby. Who did this Abby think she was, anyway, having Raven summon him like that? He was the goddamn leader. If anyone was going to be doing any summoning, it would be him. "Who the Hell is Abby?"

Raven lifted one eyebrow in amusement which just pissed him off more. She spoke slowly for him."Dr. Griffin. Clarke's mom. That Abby."

Oh. He grabbed his shirt and wiped his face with it to cover his stunned silence. Clarke and Raven were the only ones who had talked to the Ark. As far as they knew he was just the stowaway who shot the chancellor. Why would Dr. Griffin need to talk to him unless Clarke admitted he was running things down here?

He pulled his shirt over his head as he headed for the engineering tent, feeling a bit like he was walking that final corridor to the floater airlock.

"Aw, don't put your shirt on, on my account," Raven called to him.

Seriously? Less than a day after breaking up with Space Walker and she's trying to flirt with him. That was some emotional baggage he wasn't going anywhere near.

"No!" He heard Clarke shout from the tent. "You are not shutting me out of this!"

He ran the last 20 feet and yanked the canvas aside.

Clarke stood at the monitor, fists clenched at her side.

"What's happening, Clarke?"

She looked up at him and her eyes held an angry fire that for once, wasn't because of him. "The Ark needs to tell us something big, and it was only supposed to be me and one other person who could know this secret. I picked you, which, well, freaked my mom out."

Clarke was talking fast and he was trying to process but all he could focus on was that she had picked him. _She picked him._ He moved slowly towards her, trying to figure out what was going on.

"I tried to reassure her by telling her that as leader, you needed to know this secret anyway. But it turns out they were only telling me because I was leader and now I no longer fit some mysterious criteria to find out but you're somehow the perfect person to tell."

Bellamy took a deep breath and moved around the table to where Clarke stood. He had gotten the general idea. He nodded at the older woman who appeared on screen. Even through the pixelation he could see the resemblance to Clarke - beautiful and determined. He nodded, "Dr. Griffin."

She gave him a wary smile. "Mr. Blake."

_Mr. Blake. Who the Hell was that?_ Bellamy almost laughed, but it was the furthest thing from a laughing matter so instead he cleared his throat to cover it up. "When you thought Clarke was leader, you asked that she have a second person to share this secret with. Now you know I'm leader and I choose Clarke to be my second.

"But Mr. Blake-"

"This isn't up for discussion. I didn't randomly pluck Clarke from the crowd to pretend to be leader on the radio for the Ark's benefit. She was already my second down here and I have a feeling I'm going to need her advice to get us through whatever shit is about to hit the fan. He winced. Did he really just swear in front of Clarke's mom?

He glanced over at Clarke who was staring at him with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open a little. Heh. Good to know he could shock her into silence…which she was experiencing because he'd just admitted to needing her help running things. _Shit_. What the Hell had happened to him in the last 24 hours? He faced Dr. Griffin again. Whatever backpedaling he was going to have to do later, he had no choice but to move forward now. "So, what's this secret we need to know?"

Abby closed her eyes for a moment, weighing her decision. When she opened them again, the look of determination was back. "You'd better both sit down."

Bellamy hauled over a long bench and he and Clarke sat down, shoulder to shoulder to face whatever this news was together.

"There's no easy way to say this," Abby started, hesitating, "so I'll just say it. There's one drop ship and it can only hold 700 people. Everyone else stays on the Ark until it runs out of oxygen."

Bellamy sucked in a breath. 2300 people left on the Ark and only 700 would make it to the ground. All those people who would die; it was almost too horrible to think about.

"No," Clarke whispered. "There's got to be another way."

Abby shook her head. "Engineering has run through every possible scenario. We've already bumped up the ship's capacity from 500 to 700 using some design changes they figured out."

"Did you know this?" Clarke asked. "Did you know three quarters of the Ark's population would die when we were sent down here?" She gave a bitter laugh. "Because suddenly this makes the 100 the lucky ones. Geez, council should have gone on a crime crackdown blitz the week before we left and really crammed people into our drop ship."

"Council didn't know," Abby said. "That secret has been passed down from chancellor to chancellor over the generations. Jaha only shared it with council yesterday. Because if people knew, we'd have a mutiny on our hands up here. That's why you can't tell anyone else on the ground. We're going to start letting parents talk to their kids on Earth and we can't have this secret get out." Abby had been addressing both of them but now she looked directly at Clarke. "Clarke, this isn't like your Dad's secret. The two of you thought if we told people, that people could rally and figure a way to fix the air scrubber, but there is no solution to this. There's no physical way to send everyone down to earth and knowing would just cause fights between the people selected and the people to be left behind. People we need on Earth may want to sacrifice themselves for loved ones who aren't as...valuable."

Clarke had tears in her eyes. "If there's nothing we can do about it, then why are you even telling us, Mom?"

"Because we need to pass the Ark's knowledge on to those of you on the ground. The 700 will be chosen to cover as wide a range of occupations as possible, but it also has to include a large number of guards to help you fight the Grounders. With 1600 people not joining you on Earth, that's a lot of knowledge that will be lost."

"It's not knowledge lost!" Clarke snapped. "It's people. And they won't be lost, they'll be dead."

"I know, Clarke." Abby pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's just…it's just easier to speak in the abstract and not think about the real people involved."

"What do you need us to do?" Clarke asked, her anger faded to reluctant acceptance.

"We're going to say that the drop ship has been delayed for two months, so we think it's wise to pass on as much knowledge as possible to help you survive the two months without us. The timeline is still three weeks, but no one will know that until the ship is loaded as a "drill" and separated from the Ark.

"Mr. Blake, we need you to decide which teens are going to learn which skills. Often it can be based on the division they were in before being arrested, but not always. Some juveniles are going to have to step into occupations they never anticipated and it will up to you to determine who's best suited for the job. Plus, unless Raven can figure out how to rig up a second video link, only one "class" can take place at a time, so a 24/7 schedule will need to be set up.

A sick feeling was growing in Bellamy's gut. Something about the mysterious extra criteria that he fit and Clarke didn't. "How are the 700 being picked?"

Now Abby looked really nervous. "It's a points system. Obviously there are a lot of points given for skill set. The importance of the skill to life on Earth, how they've scored on previous job assessments, years of experience, etc. But if we have 50 farmers and are only allotting room for 10, we have to find another way to differentiate. The fact is, in some ways, the goals on Earth will be almost opposite of those the Ark; especially given the Grounder problem and the low number of people we're going to be able to send to the ground. It's ironic, really, how quickly a goal can change—"

She was talking around what she needed to say and Clarke realized it too. "Spit it out, Mom!"

Abby took a deep breath. "We need to repopulate the Earth and that means sending down young people who can have lots of babies. Women get points for every year under 35 and lose points for every year over, becoming ineligible at age 40. Men get points for every year under 45 and become ineligible at 55."

Wow, that was a hard one to wrap his mind around. The crime his family was convicted of not only wasn't a crime on Earth, it was now something to be encouraged.

Clarke's voice was shaky. "It's a good thing you're 39, Mom. You got in just under the wire. Although realistically, are you really going to hook up with some random guy in the next couple years, just to pop out another baby? Don't get me wrong, a baby brother or sister could be kind of cool."

"Clarke," Abby said gently.

"Send us the list of skill sets that need to be passed on and Bellamy and I will figure out who's best suited for each. We'll have to coordinate a schedule with each person's job here on Earth because we still need food, water and firewood collected and cooking, guard duty and wall building going on.

"Clarke, Mr. Blake is going to have to do that."

"Just because I'm not the leader doesn't mean I can't organize things down here!" Clarke snapped. "I know some of these kids better than Bellamy and will know what they're capable of. And another thing…"

Crap. Bellamy knew now what the extra criteria was. The one that he fit perfectly and the girl who was still ranting to her mom didn't. And his heart ached for her, even if once again, she thought she'd do a better job as leader than he would.

Bellamy reached over and took Clarke's hand. Startled, she stopped talking to look at him. It worked every time; he'd really have to remember that. "Clarke," he said gently. "Listen to what your mom has to say."

Clarke bit her lower lip and nodded.

"Thanks, Bellamy," Abby said softly. "Clarke, I know you'd be brilliant at organizing the 100, just like you're brilliant at everything you do, but you won't have time because you'll be too busy studying. Clarke, you're the doctor now."

Clarke stilled beside him, squeezing his hand like her life depended on it as her ability to deny the reality of the situation was stripped away. "No!" She leapt up, wrenching her hand from Bellamy's. "That's impossible! You're the only doctor on the Ark. It shouldn't matter if you're 89 years old, you get a million points for being our doctor." She started pacing. "Whoever is doing the points must have it out for you. Talk to Jaha; he'll fix this."

Abby ignored her grasping at straws. "There's one last element to determine who gets a spot on the drop ship. One of our scientists has been modeling genetic diversity scenarios for us. The numbers are borderline, especially with a greater chance of spontaneous genetic mutation due to residual radiation on the ground." She hesitated again. "The only scenario that works is if the population that is sent down has no first generation relations. If a parent goes, the child stays behind. If a child goes, the parents stay behind. And Clarke, if a child is already on the ground, the parents are automatically ineligible." Abby looked at her daughter with sympathy, worried more about her wellbeing than her own impending death. "I'm sorry, honey. I wish it were different."

"No, NO!" Clarke stumbled backwards, bumping into a shelf and sending mechanical parts falling to the ground. "I've already lost Dad and now I'm going to lose you, too. Everyone who's down here is going to lose their parents. Finn and Monty and Jasper...wait, that's the extra criteria, isn't it? The reason you rejected Finn and Monty as my second? Because they aren't orphans."

Like a punch to the gut Bellamy felt the impact of her words. Of course Clarke had picked Finn and even Monty before him. He'd been an idiot to think otherwise.

"But they're going to be orphans soon enough. We all will." Clarke choked back a sob and ran out of the tent."

"Please help her," Abby cried.

He leapt up to go after Clarke but paused to say something that had been slowly solidifying with the talk of youth and babies and genetic diversity. "You can tell council that if they think they're going to use Clarke and my sister and the other girls as human incubators they're going to face a war when they get here, and it won't be against the Grounders."

Abby had the decency to look horrified. "They wouldn't do that."

"How would you know? You won't be here to find out." It was a cruel thing to say and he immediately felt like shit for saying it but protecting the 100 was his first priority; he didn't have time for niceties.

He ran out of the tent and scanned camp. A flash of blonde hair was just running out the gate. Damn it! He ran after her but slowed when he saw that Clarke was now walking through the forest. Better to get away from camp eavesdroppers before he caught up with her, and besides, he had to process everything he'd found out in the last few minutes before he could talk about it with Clarke.

What was he going to say to her? He couldn't tell her that everything would be OK because it wasn't. Nothing about this situation was OK. Besides, he wasn't the comforting type. That wasn't his role here and Clarke sure as Hell didn't want comfort from him anyway. She'd made that perfectly clear when she admitted to wanting to share the secret with either Finn or Monty before his name came up. That stung and he hated himself for feeling that way.

Whatever. It didn't matter. What was important was getting through the next three weeks, transferring as much knowledge as possible without anyone on the ground or Ark getting suspicious. And the bigger, looming question: what would happen once the 700 got here? He hadn't worried about the future before; too busy keeping everyone alive from day to day. If he gave it any thought at all it was that if they let him live, he could probably get a job as a guard again, given his on-the-ground experience. But now he knew that wouldn't be enough for him.

On the Ark, his only concern had been the safety of his sister. Now he had almost a hundred brothers and sisters and it was his duty to keep them all safe. The idea of handing over the reins to the Ark council who knew nothing about conditions on the ground scared the Hell out of him. He had to figure out how to have some say in decision-making once the 700 came down and the only way that would happen is if the the 100 remained loyal to him as their leader. For that, he needed unquestioning respect from everyone here.

He'd done a lot to blow that with Clarke over the last 24 hours. Although he knew now he needed Clarke as an ally that didn't mean they could be friends. Her first loyalty sure as Hell wasn't to him and his first loyalty couldn't be to her either, which was too bad because Clarke could use a friend right now. For three weeks she would know her mom was going to die and wouldn't be able to grieve publicly.

For a moment Bellamy wished it was Finn that Clarke had been able to share this secret with. Without the obligations of leadership Finn would be able to comfort her and hold her in his arms-

Bellamy shook his head. He didn't need that mental picture. Besides, she was Clarke freaking Griffin. Princess? Maybe an iron princess. He'd never met anyone so brave. Yeah, it was a shitty situation but Clarke would be just fine without he or anyone else getting all emotional with her.

Where the Hell was she anyway? He didn't see her walking ahead of him anymore. Then he spotted her, sitting against a huge tree, head down and her arms wrapped around her knees.

Bellamy walked closer. She probably wanted her privacy but they didn't have time for that now. They had a lot of work ahead of them and they needed to get started.

"Hey, Princess," he called as he stepped closer.

She lifted her tear-stained face to his and he was lost. _Aw, Hell._ He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around her.

She was stiff against him for a moment, but then sagged into his embrace, laying her cheek against his chest and holding him tightly to her, as if afraid that he'd disappear if she didn't.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair. "I'm so sorry, Clarke."

She started crying more loudly, body wracking, soul shaking sobs that left him feeling helpless in a way he hadn't experienced since Octavia was discovered on the Ark. If he could have ripped his heart out and used it to replace her broken one, he would have. But all he could do was continue to hold her, stroking her back, kissing her hair, and rocking her softly against him. There was nothing he could say to make her feel better so he said nothing at all.


End file.
